1998 4.6l. 0401 CEL on.
When I take the green vacuum line off the top of the EGR valve, should I feel vacuum into the top of the EGR valve? I don't.

I took out the EGR mounting bolts and pulled the EGR away from the throttle body. It sucked a lot of air and then died. Seems to me that the EGR ports are clear.

Do I have a bad EGR, DPFE, or what?
Thanks!

 

No. But the vacuum line should not be drawing vacuum at idle.


To check the EGR ports for flow, with the engine at idle, open the EGR valve, either by manually opening it, or applying vacuum to the EGR valve with a vacuum pump to open the EGR valve. If the EGR passages are open the engine should stall when the EGR is opened.

 

As I said above, "I took out the EGR mounting bolts and pulled the EGR away from the throttle body. It sucked a lot of air and then died. Seems to me that the EGR ports are clear."
In a fairly remote location here. Don't have a vacuum pump or gauge. Is there some other way to check if the EGR valve is the problem?

 

But, that won't tell you if the EGR internals are plugged.


Is the bottom portion of your EGR exposed? If so, reach under there and raise the diaphragm to see if the engine will stall. Be careful, it could be HOT to the touch!

 

Use a length of vacuum hose and your personal facial vacuum. Just pretend you're trying to drink a milk shake through a straw.

The EGR valve only rarely fails. This fault code is almost always due to a faulty DPFE sensor followed by clogged EGR ports in the intake.

 

I'll try that. In the mean time, I pulled the hoses off of the DPFE. The larger hose crumbles on the inside. It was like broken red rock particles. Could that be the problem? Could it clog up the DPFE? Should I be able to blow through the DPFE in through the big inlet and out through the small?
After I do all this and the CEL is reset, am I going to have to wait for the system to go through all it's stuff before I can tell if I fixed it or not?

 

Here's the hose

 

Yes and yes.

No.


Replace the DPFE sensor and the hoses. Be aware, they're a high-temperature item, common rubber hoses won't last long.

Unless you know how to test it manually, yes. Since you had to ask, that's something you don't know how to do.